Sundance review: 'God Loves Uganda'

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"God Loves Uganda"

U.S. Documentary

***1/2 (three-and-a-half stars)

Are American evangelicals saving souls in Uganda, or engaged in a "new colonialism" and threatening the lives of gays and lesbians in the African nation? That's the question director Roger Ross Williams poses in this moving, on-the-ground documentary. He takes us inside the missionary training at Kansas City's International House of Prayer, and to Kampala, Uganda, where those Christians proselytize  and bankroll local pastors to set up megachurches and lavish personal lifestyles, while lobbying the Ugandan Parliament for a bill that would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death for repeat offenders. Williams also interviews Ugandan clergy who stand against this U.S.-backed campaign and for human rights. The film gives both sides their chance to be heard, while making it quite clear the deadly stakes of the fight.